Liberia’s First Lady, Kartumu Yarta Boakai has outlined the urgency for the launch of a National Mental Health Plan that is responsive and inclusive, as she rallies partners at the TUFH 2025 Global Health Cultural Dinner held in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Delivering a special remark at the gathering, Madam Boakai reminded the audience that every day in Liberia, women risk their lives to give life, adding that many give birth on hospital floors, while others never make it to a facility at all.
According to her, Liberia neonatal mortality rates are alarming, but with partners’ help, they are changing that. She disclosed that from Bomi to Pipeline to Duport Road hospitals, women are being seen, mothers are being honored, and babies are being welcomed with care, not chaos as they have seen and witnessed in the video.
Championing the urgency for the creation of a national mental health plan, Madam Boakai stated that in many African societies, including Liberia, mental health is still being whispered because it is met with silence, stigma, or shame, while the pain that is buried does not die, rather it only festers.
“Let me now walk you through the very real and urgent challenges we’re tackling—challenges that reveal both the depth of the crisis and the hope we carry: Liberia desperately needs trained professionals, equipped centers, and a National Mental Health Plan that is both responsive and inclusive. That is why I call on partners such as the Mollie Woods Hare Global Center of Excellence, whose mission to set clinical standards, train providers, conducts research, and support policy for neurodivergence is both admirable and needed,” she urged.
Accordingly, she stated that Liberia is recovering from the trauma of war and also from the echoing differences of systems too long neglected. She stressed that these differences are no longer abstract; rather, they cry out in Liberia maternity wards, in the anguish of mental illness, and in the growing shadows of youth addiction. The TUFH 2025 Global Health Conference is a unique gathering aimed at transforming healthcare through innovation, inclusion, and compassion.
